David Rake

My maternal great-grandfather, David Rakes, was born in Franklin or Floyd County, Virginia in 1861, the son of Charles H. and Julia Ann Jones Rakes. On May 31, 1884, Mr. Rakes and my maternal great-grandmother, Martha Ellen Janney, were married in Franklin County, Virginia, with the Rev. Asa N. Short presiding.

They only had one surviving issue, my maternal grandmother, Mary Elizabeth Rakes (Meadows)(Baker), who was born in Shawsville, Montgomery County, Virginia on July 22, 1896 and who died in Steubenville, Jefferson County Ohio on September 13, 1979.

My grandmother told me that when she was about 8 years old, her father, David Rakes, had become a coal miner at a mine around Welch, West Virginia. He was at work one day when a coal car "broke loose" and threatened to run some of his fellow miners over. He jumped on the side of it and kicked some fellow miners out of the way, then the coal car overturned on top of him, crushing his chest and killing him instantly. This would have happened around 1904.